Meet Yo The Freedom Guide | Embodied Movement Facilitator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Yo The Freedom Guide and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yo The Freedom Guide, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
Yo’s Place of Peace was born from my own healing journey and my calling to be a vessel of peace for others—wherever they are. As someone who travels and vends, I realized that peace isn’t just found in a location, it’s something we can bring with us and offer to others. Through my hugs, my faith, peace rituals, and even the products I create or resell, I’ve seen how powerful simple acts of love and care can be.

Yo’s Place of Peace is the heart of everything I do—it’s the umbrella that holds The Hug Ministry, Yo’s Freedom Dance, YoSnacks and Chadwicks Healing Candles. Whether I’m offering a 20-second heart-to-heart hug, leading a soul-freeing dance, or sharing a snack or natural item infused with love and intention, it’s all about helping people reconnect with peace—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my journey. My work is centered on creating healing spaces and offering tools for holistic wellness through faith, touch, movement, and community. I am the founder of The Hug Ministry, a movement that promotes 20-second, heart-to-heart hugs combined with deep breathing and a focus on God’s presence. Also showing healthy touch. As Yo The Freedom Guide, I walk alongside others on their journey to wholeness, using prayer, workshops, and ecstatic conscious dance to support transformation.

What sets me apart is my blend of conscious Christian faith with intuitive, embodied healing. I show up authentically, bringing real-life experiences to the table. My journey has included deep grief, including the loss of my son, and it’s through that pain that I found deeper purpose and compassion. My mission is to walk with others as they heal—spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

It hasn’t been easy. I’ve had to navigate seasons of loss, reinvention, and financial challenge. But I’ve learned that transformation is always available when we choose to trust the process. One key lesson I carry is that even in brokenness, we can be a light for others.

Under my wellness products line, I offer natural remedies like comfrey salve, pain relief spray and sea moss gel blends, always infused with love and matching affirmations. Everything I create—from products to prayers to dance—is a reflection of my belief that healing is not only possible but sacred.

One of my most exciting goals is to create a community connection network called Yo’s Freedom Trail—a platform that highlights the many paths to healing and self-discovery. I want people to know that there are infinite trails to freedom, and that each journey is valid, sacred, and worthy of celebration.

I want the world to know that my brand is a ministry of love, freedom, and faith. My story is still unfolding, but I’m here to be a reminder that peace, healing, and divine purpose are within reach.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend was visiting Atlanta, I’d guide them through a sacred, soulful experience—blending nourishment, movement, healing, and community, with a deep spotlight on the South Side and the spaces that have truly poured into me.

We’d start with grounding: a Hug Ministry moment beginning the journey with love.
From there, we’d sip on a calming shell of kava at Kava Mama—my go-to spot for high-quality kava when I need to sit back, relax, and breathe deep. Kava supported me through my grief, and it continues to be a grounding medicine in my walk.

When it’s time to move, I’d guide them to a Five Rhythms class led by the phenomenal Julie Stuart. Julie has held the Five Rhythms community together through the pandemic, and her classes offer a deeply sacred container where it’s safe to let go, be witnessed, and truly feel free.

We’d also make space for Sol Dance—a multi-sensory experience that moves spirit, body, and community in one soulful rhythm. Shoutout to DJ Scott Houston and the incredible vendors who create such a vibrant container for healing and expression.

Another beautiful night would include Pure Tone with Catt Jordan, a light blend of toning and quick movement. It’s fun, freeing, and best of all—free of charge for women thanks to the Piedmont Women’s Heart Program, led by our community’s own Avril Maynard. It’s a beautiful example of wellness being accessible.

We’d spend a morning at Calo Gitano Flamenco Academy for Move with Joy, a unique dance experience where I’ve also hosted Yo’s Freedom Dances. After class, we’d connect at Taproom Coffee next door, followed by a stop at Soberish—a local sober alternative store with great options for conscious fun.

Another must is One Life Juice Wellness Center, where they serve fresh juices and sea moss blends and offer wellness classes. It’s also where I first brought Yo’s Freedom Dance to life, with the support of Jill Miller, who believed in me and helped that vision bloom.

Of course, we’d head to Vegan & Friends ATL on Wednesday night to experience a vibrant market of plant-based foods, natural products, and community connection. My husband Sir Chadwick and I vend there under our booth Yo’s Place of Peace, featuring Chadwick’s Healing Candles—our offering of light and restoration to the community.

To close it all in love, we’d spend Sunday at Kept Outreach Ministries—my home church and the place that reintroduced me to Christ through the power of unconditional love. That encouraged me to dance and be myself authentically. That community helped me heal, rebuild, and remember who I am in God. It was a necessary part of the journey to know my spiritual foundation always had my back especially exploring the conscious.

I’d send them home with a jar of sea moss, a healing candle, and a heart full of new memories—reminded that:

There are infinite trails to freedom. Walk yours with breath, love, and bold faith.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The Atlanta Ecstatic Conscious Dance Community

Yo The Freedom Guide — was born from over a decade of transformation in the Ecstatic Conscious Dance community of Atlanta.

My journey began over 14 years ago after watching the movie “Thank You for Sharing”, which featured a scene with Ecstatic Conscious Dance. I was a huge fan of the artist Pink, who starred in the film, and seeing that scene sparked something in me. I looked up the practice and found Kathleen Cooley — a radio show personality on WRFG 89.3FM — who had brought this West Coast movement to Atlanta with a leap of faith. I showed up to her class at 425 pounds and as the only African American in the room — but I felt completely at home. It was as if I had found my tribe — a place where I could move without judgment, cry without question, and begin to heal in ways I never imagined.

Along the way, I met Maurice LeCroy — a living legend in our community. Now in his 80s, full of joy and an embodiment of peace, Maurice would always encourage me to explore more movement gatherings happening in the city, and I did. That’s where I met #MyDJ Scott Houston — an extraordinary DJ and teacher whose ability to move people with music opened something in me.

That’s when things truly shifted. I found myself in a warm, welcoming space where movement wasn’t about performance — it was about presence. People accepted me wherever I was, whether on the ground with aching knees or standing tall in full expression. A woman named Leigh Ann Ledbetter once rubbed my feet when I collapsed from exhaustion. She didn’t know my name, but she saw my humanity. That moment reminded me how powerful it is when people meet you with love, no questions asked.

Throughout the years, I met more inspiring souls — dancers, facilitators, and healers who each modeled what it meant to move authentically. There was Azi Amanzadeh, whose effortless grace helped me embrace my own body. Joy Tanksley, taught me how to connect my dance to my emotions — to let each movement mirror how I’m truly feeling that day. Julie Stuart, a teacher whose no-nonsense commitment to presence challenged me to show up fully. And Marisa Skolky has held space for me through the most tender moments of my grief. She’s helped me find my voice again, let go, be silly, and reconnect with my inner child — a gift I didn’t even know I needed.

This practice has carried me through life’s most painful seasons — including the heartbreaking loss of my mother and my son. In moments like these, it’s not just dance — it’s a lifeline. This community, this sacred space of movement, continues to hold me when I feel like falling apart. It’s one of the practices that keeps me going.

After undergoing weight loss surgery, I experienced intense depression, anxiety, and a spiral into pain management and addiction. Yet dance remained my constant. It was where I could weep, laugh, scream, pray, or simply breathe. Nobody asked why — they just held space. And that space healed me.

During the pandemic, our community re-emerged in nature thanks to Sol Dance. Dancing barefoot in the grass, in the sun and rain, changed everything. I discovered that healing doesn’t come in a bottle — it comes from movement, connection, spirit, and breath. It comes from God, nature, and people.

So today, I give my heartfelt shoutout to the Atlanta Ecstatic Conscious Dance community — the Community that has truly shown me how to let go and let God.

The day after my 41st birthday, I launched Yo’s Freedom Dance — my offering back to the world that gave me my life. It’s more than a dance practice; it’s a journey to freedom, to self-love, and to wholeness.

To every teacher, dancer, and divine appointment on the dance floor — thank you. This isn’t just my story. It’s ours.

Remember this… “Whatever you do begin it in love and it has no choice but to end in peace. ” ~ Yo

See you on the dance floor! 🫂💓
Grateful

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Image Credits
Matthew Demarko 1000 Word Mirrors

Rainy Lynn